Saturday, November 28, 2015

Pope Francis Visits Africa

Earlier this year, the Pope visited the United States on a tour of three cities - Washington, D.C., New York, and Philadelphia. I took my son to try and go see him while the Pope was visiting Philadelphia, and we were blessed enough to have gotten this chance.

Now, the Pope is in Africa on a three nation tour. The first stop was in Kenya, followed by Uganda, and then a visit to war-ravaged Central African Republic. There were some concerns and even doubts that he would be able to visit the Central Africa Republic, although he has been insistent to do so, and as of right now while I write this, there are no plans to change the itinerary.

In Kenya, Pope Francis spoke of the urgency of addressing action on climate change at United Nations headquarters in Nairobi, before visiting Kangemi, a large slum in Nairobi. There, he lashed out at the evil that creates such slums, and condemned the conditions that so many have to live under, calling them "new forms of colonialism." He urged the nation's elites, and more generally, the wealthy around the world, to rein in the excess greed that has allowed them to ignore such conditions.

These excesses, he argued, leads to the "dreadful injustice of social exclusion" that result in slums such as Kangemi around the world.

"Our world has a grave social debt toward the poor who lack access to drinking water because they are denied a life consistent with their inalienable dignity," the Pope said.

Pope Francis slams nation's elite, corruption on his last day in Kenya By Faith Karimi, CNN, November 27, 2015: